Astronomy and Music: The Connection?

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The connection between music and astronomy has deep historical roots. Matthew Whitehouse will present a lecture-recital in which he will play some of his compositions on pipe organ and talk about the connection between astronomy and music. He holds a doctorate in organ performance from The University of Arizona and is presently the Observatory Manager at the S.C. State Museum.

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Astronomy and Music: The Connection?

Wayne State Professor Receives Prestigious NSF Early Career Award; Research to Impact Metro Detroit Schools' Astronomy …

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Newswise DETROIT A Wayne State University researcher has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the agency's most prestigious award for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering.

The five-year, $550,000 grant was awarded to Ed Cackett, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics & astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for the project Reflection and reverberation in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries.

According to Cackett, neutron stars are extreme stars about the mass of the sun, but only the size of a city containing ultra-dense material, many times the density of an atomic nucleus. These stars are so dense that the velocity needed to escape a neutron star's gravity is about 30 percent of the speed of light, said Cackett.

Cackett studies these stars in binary systems where a sun-like star orbits a neutron star. He will apply cutting-edge techniques to understand how the strong gravity around these objects pulls material from the companion star toward it a process known as accretion.

This NSF award also will allow Cackett to develop a program to provide access to solar telescopes to metro Detroit-area schools to add a hands-on daytime observing aspect to their science curricula. In addition, he will provide curricular materials and conduct workshops for high school teachers for this program, as well as review all astronomy topics in the high school science standards.

Cackett received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews (UK) and held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan and University of Cambridge (UK) before joining the Wayne State University faculty in January 2012.

The award number for this NSF grant is 1351222.

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Wayne State Professor Receives Prestigious NSF Early Career Award; Research to Impact Metro Detroit Schools' Astronomy ...

Astronomers Complete Cosmic Dust Census

An international team of astronomers has completed a benchmark study of more than 300 galaxies, producing the largest census of dust in the local universe, the Herschel Reference Survey. Led by Dr. Luca Cortese from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, the team used the Herschel Space Observatory to observe galaxies at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths and captured the light directly emitted by dust grains. The results appear in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.These dust grains are believed to be fundamental ingredients for the formation of stars and planets, but until now very little was known about their abundance and physical properties in galaxies other than our own Milky Way, said Dr. Cortese.Cosmic dust is heated by starlight to temperatures of only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero, and can thus be only seen at far-infrared/submillimeter wavelengths.The two cameras on board the Herschel satellite, SPIRE and PACS, allowed astronomers to probe different frequencies of dust emission, which bear imprints on the physical properties of the grains and therefore were critical for this study. Although the SPIRE data were obtained three years ago, the team had to wait for the completion of the PACS survey last year.The long wait was worthwhile, as the combination of the PACS and SPIRE data shows that the properties of grains vary from one galaxy to another -- more than we originally expected. As dust is heated by starlight, we knew that the frequencies at which grains emit should be related to a galaxys star formation activity. However, our results show that galaxies chemical history plays an equally important role, commented Dr. Cortese.Co-author of the work, Dr. Jacopo Fritz, from Ghent University in Belgium, said: This affects our ability to accurately estimate how much dust is in the universe. It is particularly an issue for the most distant galaxies, which have a star formation and chemical history significantly different to the one in our own Milky Way.The data obtained for the Herschel Reference Survey have been made publicly available to allow further studies of dust properties in nearby galaxies. Although the Herschel Space Telescope completed its mission in April 2013, the combination of data in the Herschel archive, with future observations from the newly commissioned Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, will help astronomers to further unveil the mystery of cosmic dust in galaxies in the years to come.Media Contacts:Lea KivivaliSwinburne University of Technology, Australia+61 3 9214 5428, cell: +61 410 569 311lkivivali@swin.edu.auMarkus BauerESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer+31 71 565 6799, cell: +31 61 594 3954markus.bauer@esa.intScience Contacts:Luca CorteseSwinburne University of Technology, Australialcortese@swin.edu.suGran PilbrattESA Herschel Project Scientist+31 71 565 3621gpilbratt@rssd.esa.intProf. Steve EalesSchool of Physics and AstronomyCardiff University+44 (0)2920 876168steve.eales@astro.cf.ac.ukThe team included researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, European Southern Observatory, Ghent University, Arcetri Observatory, Laboratory of Astrophysics of Marseille, University of Crete, Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, Institut dAstrophysique de Paris, Padova Observatory, University of California, Heidelberg University, Cardiff University, University of Paris VII, Max-Planck-Institute for extragalactic astronomy, INAF-Roma, University of the Western Cape, Joint ALMA Observatory.The research is published in PACS photometry of the Herschel Reference Survey -- far-infrared/submillimeter colors as tracers of dust properties in nearby galaxies, L. Cortese, J. Fritz, S. Bianchi, A. Boselli, L. Ciesla, G. J. Bendo, M. Boquien, H. Roussel, M. Baes, V. Buat, M. Clemens, A. Cooray, D. Cormier, J. I. Davies, I. De Looze, S. A. Eales, C. Fuller, L. K. Hunt, S. Madden, J. Munoz-Mateos, C. Pappalardo, D. Pierini, A. Remy-Ruyer, M. Sauvage, S. di Serego Alighieri, M. W. L. Smith, L. Spinoglio, M. Vaccari and C. Vlahakis, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Oxford University Press, in press.http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/doi/10.1093/mnras/stu175Images, Captions, and Creditshttps://www.ras.org.uk/images/stories/press/Herschel%20dust%201.jpgCaption: Galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey. The images are presented in false-color to highlight different dust temperatures, with blue and red representing colder and warmer regions respectively. Credit: ESA/Herschel/HRS-SAG2 and HeViCS Key Programs/L. Cortese (Swinburne University)https://www.ras.org.uk/images/stories/press/Herschel%20dust%202.jpgCaption: The Herschel Reference Survey at infrared wavelengths. Collage of galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey, the largest census of cosmic dust in the local universe. The galaxies are presented in false-color to highlight different dust temperatures, with blue and red representing colder and warmer regions respectively. The collage is presented with dust-rich, spiral and irregular galaxies in the top left, and giant, dust-poor elliptical galaxies in the bottom-right. The images were composed from PACS and SPIRE observations at 100, 160 and 250 micron. Credit: ESA/Herschel/HRS-SAG2 and HeViCS Key Programs/L. Cortese (Swinburne University)https://www.ras.org.uk/images/stories/press/Herschel%20dust%203.jpgCaption: The Herschel Reference Survey at visible wavelengths. Collage of the 323 galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey, shown at visible wavelengths by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The color distribution highlights different stellar ages, with red and blue indicating older and younger stars, respectively. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey/L. Cortese (Swinburne University)The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS,http://www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3800 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

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Astronomers Complete Cosmic Dust Census

Facebook testing DeepFace system to perfect facial verification

The social network's artificial intelligence group is digging into sophisticated software for matching faces in photos with human-level accuracy.

Facebook is working on artificial intelligence software called DeepFace that is capable of matching faces in images with nearly the same accuracy as humans.

The social network's DeepFace system uses a 3D modeling technique to detect faces, and crop and warp them so that they face front, a method known as frontalization.

The software, currently in testing, is a facial verification system and differs from facial recognition in that it matches faces in large data sets, as opposed to assigning identity to faces. In essence, DeepFace can scan millions of photos, virtually rotate and correct the images, and find all matching faces.

Facebook's DeepFace alignment system uses 2D and 3D facial modeling and deep learning to arrive at a final frontalized crop (g).

The sophisticated system was trained using a data set of more than 4 million facial images of 4,000 people. Facebook's method proved accurate 97.25 percent of the time, according to the company's recently published paper, "DeepFace: Closing the Gap to Human-Level Performance in Face Verification."

Though still in the research and development stages, Facebook's proposed system purports to reduce the error of the current state of facial matching technologies by more than 25 percent.

Facebook's AI Group will present its research at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in June.

[via MIT Technology Review]

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Facebook testing DeepFace system to perfect facial verification

Facebook's DeepFace aims to see you for who you really are

The social network's artificial intelligence group is digging into sophisticated software for matching faces in photos with human-level accuracy.

Facebook is working on artificial intelligence software called DeepFace that is capable of matching faces in images with nearly the same accuracy as humans.

The social network's DeepFace system uses a 3D modeling technique to detect faces, and crop and warp them so that they face front, a method known as frontalization.

The software, currently in testing, is a facial verification system and differs from facial recognition in that it matches faces in large data sets, as opposed to assigning identity to faces. In essence, DeepFace can scan millions of photos, virtually rotate and correct the images, and find all matching faces.

Facebook's DeepFace alignment system uses 2D and 3D facial modeling and deep learning to arrive at a final frontalized crop (g).

The sophisticated system was trained using a data set of more than 4 million facial images of 4,000 people. Facebook's method proved accurate 97.25 percent of the time, according to the company's recently published paper, "DeepFace: Closing the Gap to Human-Level Performance in Face Verification."

Though still in the research and development stages, Facebook's proposed system purports to reduce the error of the current state of facial matching technologies by more than 25 percent.

Facebook's AI Group will present its research at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in June.

[via MIT Technology Review]

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Facebook's DeepFace aims to see you for who you really are

OAI Partners With AIA And NDIA To Host The Ohio Stem Call-To-Action Forum

The Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI), in partnership with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), announced today that it will host the "Ohio Call-To-Action Forum" Tue. and Wed.,April 8-9, 2014, at OAI'sClevelandheadquarters.

This forum is designed to foster regional and statewide communication and develop operational concepts for collaboration to enhance and expand the future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce inOhio.

"All sectors and organizations with a stake in STEM education and workforce development are invited to participate to advance STEM throughout the state and beyond," said Dr.Michael Heil, president and CEO, OAI.

"Ohio'sSTEM programs have consistently demonstrated powerful collaboration among education, industry and government entities to better prepare the future workforce," addedPeter Larson, AIA Workforce Working Group chair and director, engineering workforce, The Boeing Company. "This is the reasonwhy we have selected to meet inCleveland- to showcase all of the state's initiatives."

Break-out sessions and topic areas will include employer perspectives, innovative approaches to K-12 STEM education, higher education initiatives, STEM outside the classroom and reaching underrepresented students.

Special guests for the program include: Ms.Barbara Snyder, president,Case Western Reserve University; Ms.Aimee Kennedy, vice president, education and STEM Learning, Battelle; Ms.Margaret Ashida, executive director, STEMx, Battelle; Mr.John Hairston, district director, 11thDistrict Congressional Office; Mr.Ricky Peters, TITLE, Air Force Research Lab; and Mr.Jim Free, TITLE, NASA Glenn Center Director.

The cost to attend the seminar is$25for educators,$50for government and academia and$100for industry. The forum also includes a tour of the NASA Glenn Research Center and a reception open to all pre-paid participants including educators and students. Register online at:http://www.ndia.org/meetings/471B/Pages/default.aspxor contactRebecca Danahyvia email atrdanahy@ndia.orgDetailed information can also be found at the events section ofhttp://www.oai.org.

This forum is made possible through support from leading aerospace and defense companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin andNorthrup Grumman.

ABOUT NDIAThe National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) is America's leading Defense Industry association promoting national security. NDIA is proud to provide a legal and ethical forum for the exchange of information between Industry and Government on National Security issues. Our members foster the development of the most innovative and superior equipment, training and support for our warfighters and first responders through our divisions, local chapters, affiliated associations and events.

ABOUT AIAFounded in 1919 shortly after the birth of flight, the Aerospace Industries Association is the most authoritative and influential trade association representing the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military and business aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aircraft systems, space systems, aircraft engines, homeland and cybersecurity systems, material and related components, equipment services and information technology.

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OAI Partners With AIA And NDIA To Host The Ohio Stem Call-To-Action Forum

Richard Dawkins Highlights US Atheist’s Video on Agnostic Atheists, Agnostic Theists

Free Sign Up CP Newsletter! Related 5 Questions Every Person Must Answer, Including the Religious 'Nones' Bill Nye Reveals Backlash After Creationism Debate With Ken Ham Tenn 'Atheist Church' Grows to 2 Services in 3 Months Albert Einstein on Power of Prayer: 'Belief in Existence of Final Spirit Rests on a Kind of Faith' Bill Nye Reveals He Is Agnostic; Shares Expectations for Ken Ham Creationism Debate

March 17, 2014|10:37 am

British atheist professor Richard Dawkins tweeted a YouTube video by an American atheist, JaclynGlenn, who argues that "agnosticism" is not a stand-alone term and that many atheists "wrongly" identify as just being agnostics. She urges them not to do so any longer.

JaclynGlenn, who is from Los Angeles, Calif., and has about 22,000 followers on Twitter, says she made the video after many religious people asked her why she doesn't say she's an agnostic. "But the thing is ... agnostic is not a position of belief," she says.

Dawkins, who's got more than 900,000 followers on Twitter, tweeted the video last week, saying, "Agnostic atheists (& agnostic theists). The stylish @JaclynGlenn's impeccable etymology will be much misunderstood."

Atheism means without "theism" or belief, JaclynGlenn explains. And agnosticism means without "gnostic" or knowledge of religion or God. "It's a position of knowledge, not of belief." Everyone should say she or he is agnostic, because you can't prove there's God, she adds.

The only people who do not identify as being agnostics are "super-Christians," she charges, adding that they think they know the answer and all the facts, but they are "flat out wrong."

"Atheism is just a lack of belief in God. We're not claiming to know that God doesn't exist. Therefore, atheists are agnostics. But if you claim that you're only agnostic, that's nothing," she tells her viewers.

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Many people think they are neither Christian nor atheist, and that's why they call themselves agnostic, she says. While that's not correct, it's still better than being a certain type of a Christian, she adds.

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Richard Dawkins Highlights US Atheist's Video on Agnostic Atheists, Agnostic Theists

Stem cell politics behind forgery chargesPMA president

Leo Olarte, M.D., PMA president. PHOTO from http://www.philippinemedicalassociation.org

MANILA, Philippines Politics over stem cell treatment may be behind the move to slap an ethics case against him for allegedly falsifying signatures, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president said.

In an interview over Inquirer Radio 990 AM on Monday, Dr. Leo Olarte said he found it suspicious that Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Chair Teresita Manzala announced the ethics case against him on the day of the elections for the next PMA president.

He claimed Manzala slapped the ethics case before the PRC to ruin his chances of being re-elected in the countrys largest doctors association.

Olarte said Manzala has connections to doctors who are against stem cell medicine. Olarte is a supporter of stem cell treatment.

Manzala released the statement on the day of our elections specifically to destroy my name Manzala (also) has connections to doctors who are against stem cell. I am pro-stem cell treatment while my rival (for president) is not, Olarte said in Filipino.

In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report on Sunday, Olarte and his four predecessors were charged with fraud in the registration of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM) in the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Olarte and the four others Bu Castro, Rey Melchor Santos, Oscar Tinio and Jose Sabili were accused of forging Manzalas signature in an endorsement for the incorporation of the PSSCM.

But Olarte blamed a syndicate behind the alleged forgery.

He said the PMA paid a private trading company to process the PSSCMs incorporation with the SEC. The doctor did not name the company.

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Stem cell politics behind forgery chargesPMA president

Top Southern California Stem Cell Clinic, Telehealth Medical Group, Now offering Treatment for Knee Cartilage Injury

Orange, California (PRWEB) March 17, 2014

The top stem cell clinic in Southern California, Telehealth Medical Group, is now offering treatment for knee cartilage defects. The various outpatient therapies are often able to provide pain relief and help patients avoid the need for surgery. Treatment is often covered by insurance in full or partially, call (888) 828-4575.

Knee cartilage defects typically occur in young to middle aged individuals. These defects may cause inability to participate in amateur or professional sports, or even recreational activities.

Traditional surgery for cartilage defects involves either microfracture or implant procedures. They may work exceptionally well, however, surgeries entail risks and considerable rehabilitation time. Stem cell therapy for arthritis and cartilage defects offers great potential.

The stem cell therapies offered at Telehealth Medical Group are administered by Board Certified doctors. They include bone marrow, fat or amniotic derived stem cell injections, and there are also options for platelet rich plasma therapy and blood derived stem cells therapy. These procedures have been shown in small studies to offer a high rate of pain relief and the ability for patients to return to activity considerably faster than with operative treatments.

Often times, the stem cell procedures are covered by insurance completely or partially. There are two locations for Telehealth Medical Group, one in Orange and the other in Upland. For more information and scheduling, call (888) 828-4575.

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Top Southern California Stem Cell Clinic, Telehealth Medical Group, Now offering Treatment for Knee Cartilage Injury

New DNA-editing technology spawns bold UC initiative

BERKELEY

The University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco are launching the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) to lead a revolution in genetic engineering based on a new technology already generating novel strategies for gene therapy and the genetic study of disease.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation has provided a $10 million gift to support the initiative, establishing the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering and an affiliated faculty chair at UC Berkeley. The two universities also will provide $2 million in start-up funds.

Jennifer Doudna, executive director of the new Innovative Genomics Initiative and the new Li Ka Shing Chancellors Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences.

At the core of the initiative is a revolutionary technology discovered two years ago at UC Berkeley by Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative and the new faculty chair. The technology, precision DNA scissors referred to as CRISPR/Cas9, has exploded in popularity since it was first published in June 2012 and is at the heart of at least three start-ups and several heavily-attended international meetings. Scientists have referred to it as the holy grail of genetic engineering and a jaw-dropping breakthrough in the fight against genetic disease. In honor of her discovery and earlier work on RNA, Doudna received last month the Lurie Prize of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Professor Doudnas breakthrough discovery in genomic editing is leading us into a new era of possibilities that we could have never before imagined, said Li Ka-shing, chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. It is a great privilege for my foundation to engage with two world-class public institutions to launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative in this quest for the holy grail to fight genetic diseases.

In the 18 months since the discovery of this technology was announced, more than 125 papers have been published based on the technique. Worldwide, researchers are using Cas9 to investigate the genetic roots of problems as diverse as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and depression in hopes of finding new drug targets. Others are adapting the technology to reengineer yeast to produce biofuels and wheat to resist pests and drought.

We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique for rewriting the genome, which allows us to do experiments that have been impossible before, said Doudna, a professor of molecular and cell biology in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UC Berkeley. We are grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing for his support of our initiative, which will propel ground-breaking advances in genomic engineering.

Transforming genetic research The new genomic engineering technology significantly cuts down the time it takes researchers to test new therapies. CRISPR/Cas 9 allows the creation in weeks rather than years of animal strains that mimic a human disease, allowing researchers to test new therapies. The technique also makes it quick and easy to knock out genes in human cells or in animals to determine their function, which will speed the identification of new drug targets for diseases.

The CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a complete game changer, said Jonathan Weissman, codirector of the initiative and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the UCSF School of Medicine. With CRISPR, we can now turn genes off or on at will. I am particularly interested in using CRISPR to understand the normal functions of genes as well as how disease-causing mutations alter these functions.

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New DNA-editing technology spawns bold UC initiative

Researchers write languages to design synthetic living systems

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used a computer-aided design tool to create genetic languages to guide the design of biological systems.

Known as GenoCAD, the open-source software was developed by researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech to help synthetic biologists capture biological rules to engineer organisms that produce useful products or health-care solutions from inexpensive, renewable materials.

GenoCAD helps researchers in the design of protein expression vectors, artificial gene networks, and other genetic constructs, essentially combining engineering approaches with biology.

Synthetic biologists have an increasingly large library of naturally derived and synthetic parts at their disposal to design and build living systems. These parts are the words of a DNA language and the "grammar" a set of design rules governing the language.

It has to be expressive enough to allow scientists to generate a broad range of constructs, but it has to be focused enough to limit the possibilities of designing faulty constructs.

MIT's Oliver Purcell, a postdoctoral associate, and Timothy Lu, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, have developed a language detailed in ACS Synthetic Biology describing how to design a broad range of synthetic transcription factors for animals, plants, and other organisms with cells that contain a nucleus.

Meanwhile, Sakiko Okumoto, an assistant professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science at the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Amanda Wilson, a software engineer with the Synthetic Biology Group at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, developed a language describing design rules for expressing genes in the chloroplast of microalgae Their work was published in the Jan. 15 issue of Bioinformatics.

"Just like software engineers need different languages like HTML, SQL, or Java to develop different kinds of software applications, synthetic biologists need languages for different biological applications," said Jean Peccoud, an associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, and principal investigator of the GenoCAD project.

"From its inception, we envisioned GenoCAD as a framework allowing users to capture their expertise of a particular domain in languages that they could use themselves or share with others."

The researchers said encapsulating current knowledge by defining standards will become increasingly important as the number and complexity of components engineered by synthetic biologists increases.

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Researchers write languages to design synthetic living systems

Missouri Southern to host 25th annual Regional Science Fair – March 25

NEWS RELEASE FROM MISSOURI SOUTHERN STATE UNIVERSITY

Missouri Southern to host 25th annual Regional Science Fair

Joplin, MO (SNS) The 25th annual Missouri Southern Regional Science Fair will be held Tuesday, March 25, in the third floor ballroom of Billingsly Student Center at Missouri Southern State University.

The competition for high school and middle school students is affiliated with the Society for Science and the Public. Individual (not team) projects are accepted from students in the following counties: Vernon, Barton, Jasper, Newton, McDonald, Barry, Lawrence, Cedar and Dade in Missouri; Neosho, Crawford, Montgomery, Labette, Bourbon and Cherokee in Kansas.

This years fair will include entries from 103 students in the junior category (grades 5-8) and 37 in the senior category (grades 9-12) from Bronaugh, Liberal, Seneca, Joplin, Carthage, Carl Junction and Aurora. Categories include behavioral science; cell, molecular and microbiology; chemistry and biochemistry; computer science, engineering and math; Earth and environmental science; human and animal science; physics and astronomy; and plant science.

Closed judging will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with public viewing from 1 to 5 p.m.

Science activities including sessions on static and current electricity, extraction of DNA from strawberries, performing EMGs and liquid nitrogen ice cream will be offered from 1 to 3:45 p.m. in Reynolds Hall. Students who attend three activities will have their name placed in a drawing for iTunes gift cards.

An awards ceremony will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. in Webster Halls Corley Auditorium.

First-place winners will receive a scholarship to Missouri Southern (graduating high-school seniors in the senior division), or a cash prize (for the junior division and all others in the senior division). Grand prize winners (two senior division and two junior) will also receive cash prizes. The two senior grand prize winners will also receive an all-expense paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to be held May 11-16 in Los Angeles, Calif.

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Missouri Southern to host 25th annual Regional Science Fair - March 25